During the 2003-2004 school year at Scarsdale Friends Nursery School we persued a series of projects that developed the theme of "The Low Down On Dirt.” Our Nursery comprises three groups, eight two-year-olds, twenty three- and four-year-olds, and ten five-year-olds.

The idea for this project originally came from the teacher of the “Fives,” who wanted her group to learn about composting. We had already done several projects on living things' keeping a salamander habitat and later, a snail habitat. Our goal was to familiarize the children with words such as nutrient, soil, compost, absorption, organism, geology, etc. in a concrete way.

Our first project was to make a three dimensional papier mache model of the earth and a five foot “playboard” model of several distinct habitats, mountains, hills and meadows, river valley and ocean, and desert. We were fortunate to find sets of small resin animals that were the animals native to each habitat. This became a favorite addition to the children's open play time each morning.

Although a look backward at Earth's origins was not in our original plan, we found that this was where the children's questions led. They would intently study the books we brought from the library and ask many questions. Their questions would lead to more books, and more questions. As I read and explained the pictures, the children would draw or paint their own impressions. Sometime around February I saw that our work could be put together in the form of a book.

As the weather began to warm we started going outside to look for signs of new life. We watched to see in how many ways the “earth" we walked on sustained us and other things in many ways. We began trying to find examples of “life cycles" on our walks. During the winter we had constructed bird feeders, and now we could see and hear how the birds were also responding to the warming weather.

For the study of composting, each child had a 2 liter clear plastic bottle. Each bottle was covered with black paper so that when we added the worms, we would be able to see them at work. (Worms will try to hide from sun or daylight.) In our explorations we had found the best place to dig worms, and this turned out to be the most entrancing part of the project for the children. We respected any child's feelings when they did not at first want to handle the worms, but after ten or fifteen minutes you could not distinguish which children had been fearful at the beginning. And we found many creatures in addition to worms! The children never tired of watching them and seeing how they moved, or where they seemed to be going. We also saw how the robins would sit on a branch and watch us and then fly to the ground to get “lunch” when we moved away from the worm hunting place!

Each child found about two dozen worms. I thought that they might consider the collection and sharing of kitchen wastes as “yucky,” but by this time they thoroughly understood the whole process and kind of competed to see who could bring in the tastiest fruit peelings.

At this point we planted a flower garden, which the children had been looking forward to all winter. If they chose to take their own worms home, they were taken to dig more worms from “the worm place” to add to their plants in the garden.

Two other “unplanned” activities developed out of our study. Rocks seem to have an intrinsic interest for children, so we began an outdoor “'rock collection” next to the sandbox. To these we eventually added shells and drift wood, which now are incorporated into other aspects of their outdoor play.

Another new activity was a “gardening center,” which consisted of a shelf of pots and tools, buckets of dirt, and a variety of seeds. There is a long wooden bench to work on. We simply collected fruit pits and seeds, like citrus seeds, peach pits, and melon seeds, and put them out. The children were free to use them in any way they chose

Our last planned activity was the purchase of a large, home-composting bin, sold at cost by the Westchester Parks Dept. every May. We told the parents about this sale, so that they could get them for home use. We have set it up in a convenient corner so that we can use it all year. Once we have several feet of waste in it, we will add some worms from “the worm place!”